CLIMADAPTOOL

Have you experienced inclement weather in the city this year already? Have you suffered from the heat during the past days? Were you unable to sleep in your city apartment and could not concentrate at work due to the heat in the city? Or were you, during cooler weather, almost blown over in a large square such as Waterloo square or at the foot of a tall building, for instance in the Zuidas? Heat and wind in the city are both local urban climate phenomena that affect townspeople’s daily life. But everybody can also change the urban climate. Individual house dwellers can take several measures to prevent uncomfortable microclimate around the house and garden. Think of greening facades and open green spaces surrounding a home. Also, designers and planners can do a lot to provide better microclimate in public spaces, for example by placing shade trees or windbreaks in the right places, by keeping ventilation areas open, by using materials that store little heat or areas of removing pavement where possible.

People can now see how they can solve problems related to heat and wind in their immediate living environment in Amsterdam by using the new smartphone app “Urban ClimAdApp”. This app gives location-specific advice on appropriate urban climate adaptation measures. You see with two clicks how to protect the urban environment against harmful phenomena of urban climate. With this app, people can be made aware of the plethora of measures that city dwellers (residents, homeowners, designers, and planners) can take to improve the microclimate of their direct living environment and of the entire city of Amsterdam.